British Baby Names: Choices With Charm and Class

Every few months, about as often as I allow myself to relish a hot caramel sundae and with about the same amount of delicious anticipation, I dip into the London Telegraph birth announcements to see what the upper-crusty British baby namers are up to.

And as with that sundae, the results rarely disappoint. There are always plenty of eccentric three-name combinations, lots of charming sibsets, and a collection of names not often heard in my neighborhood of New Jersey.

One trend asserting itself in this collection: R names, with a raft of children (far beyond those mentioned here) called Rory, Rufus, Rupert, Rex, and Rowley, and on the girls' side, Ruby, Rose, Rosemary, Rosalind (and Rosalyn) and Romilly. R is a letter that's seemed dowdy for quite some time -- blame all those Baby Boom Roberts and Richards -- and is due for a resurgence.